Impacts of TV and Digital Culture: Gilmore Girls

I chose to write about Gilmore Girls for this assignment, partially, because I grew up watching the series and because I think the show hasn’t had the recognition it deserves. The show tells the story of a mother and daughter relationship with rapid-fire witty dialogue. The critics I found were Virginia Hefferman who wrote about the show on online publications of Slate and The New York Times. Nico Lang, another critic and blogger, was responsible for many of the countdown references of the show in Thought Catalog and The Daily Dot which have spread all over the internet.

Virginia Heffernan’s style of writing varies between the articles on Slate and The New York Times although she discusses the fast-paced banter aspect of the show in both articles cited below. On Slate, she opens up the article by citing dialogue from the show. This is different from her style on the NY Times where she begins with a statement and/or an argument “Something is wrong with ‘Gilmore Girls’” (NY TIMES). However, it is important to note the three year time lapse between the two articles. And where the Slate article serves to introduce the main characters, Lorelai and Rory, and their speedy convos, the NY Times article serves to state how this banter is missed in the last season when creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino leaves the show.

Nico Lang contribution to the show revolves around countdowns of memorable moments of the show, specifically directed towards the fans despite the show’s ending. The focus of her articles revolve around why the show has so many fans and essentially the heart of the show which lies in the badinage between Rory and Lorelai. The Thought Catalog articles are strictly a countdown, “50 Great Rory-Lorelai Exchanges From ‘Gilmore Girls’” and “41 Signs You’re Still Obsessed with ‘Gilmore Girls.’” The latter article does show insight of the show and its bond with fans. The article was written in 2013, six years after the show’s ending and a year before the show was added to Netflix, when despite ABC Family reruns, the show was hard to come by. But the article wittily addresses how attached the fans are to the show: “5. You really wanted to go to Yale, because Rory went to Yale, “13. You can’t watch Alexis Bledel in Mad Men, because the idea of Rory dating Pete Campbell is too weird,” or “27. You want to put on your tombstone: ‘I’m going to the coat closet to make out. Don’t eat my chicken.’” As a fan, I have felt the above many times. The Daily Dot article, “6 Reasons the Internet Loves ‘Gilmore Girls,” although another countdown, is a little more insightful at picking the appeal of the show with its many pop culture and literary allusions that encourage the viewer to rewatch and rewatch; “But as an adult, the Ulysses-like nature of each episode only fuels the show’s rewatchability. Part of the thrill of rewatching any given episode of the show is picking up the little jokes and asides you might have missed when you were fourteen, giving new meaning to an episode you thought you knew like the back of your hand.” As an English Major and twenty-year-old who started watching when I was ten, rewatching after nearly a decade has let me understand most, if not all, of the many, many references glued to every other line. And although, I normally wouldn’t consider a countdown article as a good source, I think this style functions well for the websites Lang is publishing for and who are meant to read her work.